Research On The Return Of Higher Education And Gender Difference

The return of education has always been an important topic in the field of labor economics.Higher education is an important way of human capital investment.Since the reform and opening up,with the continuous improvement of China’s economic level,the popularity of higher education has increased year by year,and the proportion of women in the population of higher education is increasingly high.In this context,studying the return of higher education and gender differences has important practical significance.This article uses urban household data from the China Household Income Survey(CHIP),selects individuals with high school or above education background,and estimates the trend of higher education return in China and gender differences between1995 and 2018 using the Ordinary Least Squares(OLS)method using the Mincer income equation.In addition,this paper analyzes the heterogeneity of the return of higher education in terms of registered residence type,education type(junior college,undergraduate and above),and regions.The study found that,first of all,in 1995,2002,2007,2013,and 2018,the return of higher education in China was 11.68%,24.34%,41.12%,34.97%,and 41.90%,respectively,showing a continuous upward trend,and the return of higher education for women has always been higher than that for men.Secondly,the heterogeneity analysis shows that the higher education return of women with agricultural household registration is lower than that of women with non-agricultural household registration,and the type of registered residence has less impact on men;The return of education with a bachelor’s degree or above is consistently higher than that with a junior college degree,and the gap between the two shows a trend of increasing;There are significant regional differences in the return of higher education.In economically developed regions,the return of higher education is higher,and the regional differences show a trend of first increasing and then decreasing.Further,in order to solve the problem of sample selection bias,this article uses the Heckman two-stage model to estimate.The regression coefficient is lower than the OLS estimate,and the trend of return on higher education is the same as the OLS estimate,and the return on higher education for women is still higher than that for men.Finally,this article uses the Oaxaca-Blinder wage decomposition model to study the wage differences between men and women in the labor market and the reasons for the differences.Research shows that in the labor market,men’s wages are always higher than women’s,and the main reason for the difference is the existence of gender discrimination.Based on the above results,this article suggests that we should attach importance to investment in higher education and build a high-quality education system;Encourage women to pursue higher education;Strengthen the implementation of labor legislation and supervision to eliminate gender discrimination in the labor market;Optimize the allocation of regional education resources and establish a fair education mechanism.